THE NATION

Jefferson won't rejoin key panel

House Democrats say he will not sit on ways and means committee until probe is complete.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats, insistent that they will hold lawmakers to higher standards, decided Tuesday that Rep. William J. Jefferson would not return to an influential committee until a federal corruption investigation involving him was completed.

Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi said the Democratic Steering Committee had resolved that Jefferson, who won a runoff election Saturday in his New Orleans district, would not be given back his spot on the ways and means committee, which determines tax and trade policies.

The steering committee also announced new panel assignments for the next session. The full Democratic caucus must still vote on those decisions.

At Pelosi's urging, the House in June stripped Jefferson of his committee assignment because of the corruption investigation that included an FBI document asserting that agents had found $90,000 wrapped in foil in the freezer of his Washington home.

Pelosi has promised to make lobbying and ethics reform a top priority when she becomes speaker next month, and the Jefferson case has been cited as an early challenge.

Jefferson, the first black member of Congress from Louisiana since Reconstruction, has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime. The Congressional Black Caucus has questioned the idea of punishing him before his legal case has been settled.

While depriving Jefferson of his committee assignment, the Democrats have been mum about another member of the ways and means committee, Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington state, who was admonished Monday by the House Ethics Committee for violating standards by giving reporters access to an illegally taped telephone call involving Republican leaders a decade ago.

Pelosi must also make a decision about Rep. Alan B. Mollohan of West Virginia, who is in line to become chairman of an appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FBI. Mollohan faces questions about personal business deals.

Jefferson also holds a seat on the House Budget Committee. It was unclear if he would retain that seat in the next Congress.